Blogger Alexander Lapshin himself told Radio Svaboda on the afternoon of March 19 that he had been detained again in Armenia at the request of the Belarusian authorities. This happened on March 19 at Yerevan airport, from where Lapshin was heading to Strasbourg.

Alexander Lapshin

«I was flying out of Yerevan and was detained again at Belarus’s request, for the sixth time already,» Lapshin told Radio Svaboda. «Belarus has updated the charges. Because previously, the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office decided to remove the search warrant. What did Belarus do? They sent a new search warrant. For absolutely the same charges — insulting Lukashenka, calls for something. The standard set. And I was detained again. This time it was very rude on the part of the National Security Service of Armenia.»

According to Lapshin, during the detention, he managed to call the police, who arrived at the airport three hours later. After that, the blogger was released, but he missed his flight.

«The police released me; the officers explained that the search warrant against me had been lifted,» Alexander Lapshin recounts. «But the plane took off without me. I was flying to Strasbourg on legal matters. Now I’m back in Yerevan, I’ll have to buy new expensive tickets. And I will file a lawsuit against the Armenian border service. I will demand compensation from them.»

Lapshin during a trial in Belarus. Photo: Radio Svaboda

Lapshin’s previous detention occurred last spring. On May 2, 2025, at the airport of Armenia’s capital Yerevan, local border guards informed Israeli citizen and blogger Alexander Lapshin that he was detained at the request of the Belarusian authorities and had to go to a police station.

«I arrived — and was detained again, spent two hours at the airport,» Lapshin told Radio Svaboda then. «They said it was again at Belarus’s request. What they do is slightly change the accusation. They add some article, I don’t even know which one. Last time there were seven articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus, now there are eight. And this, it turns out, is already a different request. I spent two hours, then they released me. But this is legal terrorism, this is exactly what the Belarusian authorities are engaged in.»

Alexander’s problems in relations with official Minsk began in 2016, when he was detained in Belarus. The reason was a criminal case initiated against Lapshin in Azerbaijan for visiting the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku did not control at that time. And although Moscow and Israel asked for Lapshin’s release, Minsk handed the blogger over to Azerbaijan. There, Lapshin was sentenced to three years, and in September 2017, Ilham Aliyev personally pardoned the blogger, allowing him to leave for Israel.

After his release, Alexander Lapshin filed a complaint with the UN regarding the actions of the Belarusian authorities, where the violation of his rights was recognized, and he wrote and spoke everything he thought about the actions of the Belarusian authorities and Alexander Lukashenka personally. This resulted in new problems. The first time Lapshin was detained in Armenia at the request of the Belarusian authorities was in September 2024. He was then informed that Minsk accused him under seven articles of the Criminal Code, and he was released after four hours. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia officially refused Belarus’s request for Lapshin’s extradition.

After that incident, Alexander Lapshin visited Armenia several more times, arriving and departing without problems. Until May 2025, when after another detention at the airport, Alexander decided to have his name removed from the «Belarusian criminal list» by filing a lawsuit with an Armenian court. In February 2026, an Armenian court recognized that Belarus’s accusations against Alexander Lapshin contradict Armenian legal norms, but it is impossible to stop the blogger’s detentions during visits to Armenia. Lapshin himself can do this by addressing his claims directly to the Belarusian authorities.